Gun Owner Arrested After Causing Secret Service Scare for House Speaker Pelosi

L

LanceOregon

Moderator
The US Secret Service staff assigned to protect US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi ( the Speaker is second in line to succeed the President in case of death ) detained a gun owner who was staying at the same Denver, CO hotel as the Speaker.

Secret Service agents saw that he was carrying a rifle case, and they thus questioned him. A search then revealed that he was illegally carrying a handgun. The man was in Denver on business, and had just retrieved the rifles after a local gunsmith had mounted new scopes on them for him. He said that he was preparing the rifles for a hunting trip planned for this fall.

The Secret Service turned him over to the Denver Police, who charged him with illegal handgun possession. His guns have all been confiscated. He is now spending the weekend in jail, and will face a judge Monday morning.

This guy was rather dumb for illegally carrying. And what incredibly bad luck for him to stay at the hotel that many key Democrats attending this week's convention are staying at.

I wonder if he is from out of state, and has a CCW in his home state? Perhaps he is so used to carrying, that he just went ahead and did it in another state? It will be interesting to hear what other details are revealed in this case.

See this news story for details:

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10292177

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Oh, jeez, it's another Wyoming boy.

Let's hope the facts aren't quite this stacked against him, or that it otherwise turns out alright.

That said, I have to say that it is not the smartest thing to right now be strolling around Denver carrying a rifle case.

I suspect it would be about 3 minutes before you heard, "Sir? Sir! Would you stop please and slowly turn toward me? Slowly. Stay there, sir...." Etc.
 
You'd think maybe he heard of the Dem National Convention going on in Denver. Hell, I'm flying into Denver in the morning (Monday)and figure security is going to be tighter than normal just in the airport much less walking around with a gun case any where.
 
here's another link

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=98258&catid=188

Police say Calanchini had permits for the rifles, but did not have concealed permits to carry two pistols that were found in his luggage.
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How do you need a ccw to have a gun in luggage?

Sounds like they are holding him for the weekend just to be safe.

Calanchini, who is registered as an independent, says he doesn't know who he's going to vote for yet.
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maybe he will make up his mind in jail:rolleyes:
 
I guess we just ought to accept the fact that martial law is in effect for high profile events?

To wit: Is carrying a handgun in luggage = illegal possession? How would one legally transport handguns?
 
Good point...if this is carrying a concealed weapon, how would you get your gun out of the gun store?

I suppose the real point is that the Secret Service is so far gone over the "better safe than sorry" horizon that they just don't care.
 
I find it odd that having a rifle in plain view in a case would constitute probable cause for a search for a concealed handgun. I'd be interested to know just how that all went down, and what ends up happening to him (that'll be a while, obviously).

Found a quote from the guy somewhat amusing...

"I didn't even know the DNC was in town. I don't watch the news," Calanchini told the station from jail before he was released on $10,000 bond. "If I had known, I would have done things differently. It was a simple mistake."
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...um, the point isn't that the DNC was in town, the point is that you were breaking the law regardless. The quote implies that the "would have done things differently" part applies to the DNC, not ignorance of the carry law. So basically, had he known that he was likely to get caught, he wouldn't have carried illegally?

Unless, of course, there were a bunch of words between the two sentences quoted. In which case I'm obviously just reading far too much into it.

To wit: Is carrying a handgun in luggage = illegal possession? How would one legally transport handguns?
Click to expand...

I know that at least some states have luggage exceptions. Others may not. In those cases, I suppose that you'd have to carry the handgun in some sort of obvious (and locked) case outside the luggage...place it in the luggage at the airport, and/or remove it at the arriving airport. Basically the same way you'd have to transport a firearm from the store to your home.
 
This could be very interesting...

Watch, I bet they'll manufacture an unpublished DHS regulation that creates a protective bubble in certain areas (around anointed politicians); which will de-facto make them no-gun zones, same as airports. :o But we won't be able to examine it. :rolleyes:

Waiting for our ministry of disinformation members to try and convince us that it is all for our own safety! :p

Apparently, the guy was prepping for an African safari. The fact that he's now on the no-fly list; which may include commercial passenger ships, by the way. He can always just row across the Atlantic ocean, a minor inconvenience, for our safety, eh?
 
Someone from CO, please chime in on the rifle permit, carrying in baggage issues. It does sound like this guy got nuked from orbit, just to be sure.
 
I'm here in CO and the rule of thumb as pertains to Denver is to never take any firearm through there. They are a "home rule" city and they think nothing of violating the state constitution to their own ends.

There is no "registration" of rifles OR handguns here in CO. It must be noted, however, that the guy is a WY resident. I do not believe that there is any firearm registration there either.

I think what they mean by "registered" is that he was cleared to buy them through NICS. The part about his having picked his firearms up from the Sportsmen's Warehouse is a bit curious. It may be that since he does most of his hunting out of the states that he stores them in Denver so he doesn't have to carry them around. That way they are already near his departure airport. I have no idea whether the Sportsmen's warehouse stores weapons. That was merely a speculative guess on why he picked them up there.

As for the handguns, if they were loaded then he would have to have a CCW to carry them on or about his person. If they were unloaded then the cops are stretching the letter of the law. If there was ammulition for the handguns in the same luggage as the handguns there may be some caveat in the law that "for the purposes of this law the firearm is considered loaded". That caveat exists in CA and if the ammo and firearm are located in the same area, car interior, trunk, etc., they are considered loaded.

Denver is rabidly anti-firearm and I would never take any firearm into that hellhole. Of course, the first thing I would have to do is to take my person into that hellhole, and that is something that I rarely, unwillingly, do.
 
MedicineBow said:
Good point...if this is carrying a concealed weapon, how would you get your gun out of the gun store?
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There was a case where a guy bought a handgun in a city bordering Denver and someone saw him walking to his car with it in his hand. Thje blissninnie called the cops and by the time they found him and stopped him he was within the Denver city limits. The firearm was in plain sight, unloaded, no ammo in the car, and he was merely traveling through Denver to get to his home. Denver confiscated his car as they had, at thet time, a law that anyone caught with a firearm in their car would forfeit the car.

NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER TRANSPORT A FIREARM THROUGH DENVER EXCEPT ON THE HIGHWAY, I-25 OR I-70, BECAUSE YOU ARE ON STATE AND FEDERAL, NOT CITY, PROPERTY.
 
Colorado does have reciprocity with Wyoming regarding Concealed Carry. In fact I'm 99% sure they have it with any other state that recognizes their permits.
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This is only relevant if he has a permit to carry in Wyoming...neither article linked here nor the other that I read mentions him having one.
 
I fail to see how this was illegal CCW if the handguns were packed away in luggage...

DNC

Liberal Denver

Anybody see a pattern?

Remember this in November.
 
LongRifles said:
Denver did (does?) have this silly ordnance that prohibits anyone from transporting firearms through the city limits, but I'm pretty sure it was challenged and repealed.

I think the legislature that was recently signed regarding the 2nd Amm. also trumps the law.
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Denver uses its "home rule city" status as a defense to their operating outside of state law. We had quite a conversation here on these forums in THIS THREAD.

Yes, Rick Stanley is an ass but that does not remove the fact that Denver believes they are above state law, the state constitution, and the constitution of the United States.

THIS POST was particularly interesting.
 
No matter what is said in the news, I believe if he gets himself a good lawyer, he will have the SS and the DPD paying for a lot of his hunting trips.

He was illegally detained. IF the TSA allows you to transport handguns in your luggage, then you should have the right to get to your hotel with your handguns in your luggage.

Had he shown up at the hotel and been acting up, or was on a watch list because of prior bad behavior, then ok, check him out. Just because pelosi was at the hotel early, Remember the DNC does not start till today, he was just passing thru.

His timetable or other reasons for going to denver to get work done on his rifle are just disinformation. He is a legal gun owner, he was legally traveling, and he was ILLEGALLY detained. PERIOD.


Get a good lawyer and enjoy the taxpayer financed hunting trips.
 
guntotin_fool said:
He was illegally detained. IF the TSA allows you to transport handguns in your luggage, then you should have the right to get to your hotel with your handguns in your luggage.
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The TSA requires that all firearms be encased in a locked hard case inside of a lockable piece of luggage. The firearm cannot be in carry-on luggage. The firearm must be unloaded and must be presented for inspection by not only the person at the check-in counter but the TSA representatives as well.

http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/prohibited/permitted-prohibited-items.shtm#6

http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/assistant/editorial_1666.shtm

The fact is that this person was engaged in peaceful travel through Denver and was attempting to gain domicile at the hotel where firearms are permitted in one's room. The check-in clerk saw the rifle case and went immediately into blissninnie mode. If the guy were truly an assassin he would have placed the firearm in a piece of luggage which is not readily recognized as a firearm case like a guitar case or steamer trunk.

My adventures with TSA at DIA: http://thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=92597
 
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